SOLAR-ERA.NET Cofund 2 Joint Call

French National Research Agence (ANR) is launching, in collaboration with 12 other countries, the SOLAR-ERA.NET Cofund 2 joint Call for Proposals to finance research projects dealing with photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP).

This SOLAR-ERA.NET Cofund 2 aims to support the economic development of the European solar power sector. Reducing technology cost, lower the environmental impact of power production and advancing manufacturing technologies, applications and energy system integration are crucial elements of the Low Carbon Energy (LCE) strategy set out in the Energy Package. This way, SOLAR-ERA.NET Cofund 2 greatly wonders to contribute to achieve the ambitious climate change targets, to sustainable, secure, cost-efficient energy supply and to provide growth and jobs in the solar and related industry sectors providing also a solid industrial and technological base.

The goals of the call consist in:

• Establishing long-lasting joint programming research efforts between Member States (and Associated Countries);
• Facilitating the acceleration of the time to market of affordable, cost-effective and resource-efficient technology solutions which decarbonize the energy system in a sustainable way;
• Making a measurable contribution to the political objectives of the Energy Union, the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan, and the building of the European Research Area.

13 countries participate in this call: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The SOLAR-ERA.NET Cofund 2 Joint Call comprises five topics which are based on priorities identified in the SET Plan:

ANR will cover only some of these topics, for projects, whose TRL is between 3 and 5. ADEME participates in the joint funding of this call as well.

Projects funded under the present call will have a minimum consortium size of two partners from two different participating countries. Within each selected consortium, funding for participating researchers will be provided by their respective national funding agencies in accordance with their terms and conditions of funding. Thus, the ANR will fund only the French teams.